Australia: Cars Seized Based on Hearsay

Victoria, Australia seizes cars based on vague complaints about anti-social driving.
TheNewspaper
Apr. 10, 2007

Residents of the state of Victoria, Australia can now settle scores by calling the police and ordering the seizure of someone's car. Hearsay evidence that a car may have had a "sustained loss of traction" is enough for police to seize a vehicle. So far in the city of Wodonga, three cars have been taken based solely on citizen complaints.

"Under the anti-hoon laws if a person signs a statement we can impound the car," Wodonga Police Sergeant Cameron Roberts told the Border Mail newspaper.

On Thursday, an off-duty police officer saw a twenty-year-old "fishtail" around a roundabout in a Ford Falcon. Instead of pursuing the youth accused of dangerous driving, he called in to have the car seized the next day. The police will collect A$204 in fees for the car's return on Tuesday. On a second accusation, police keep the car three months and on a third police will sell the car and keep the profit.

Between July 2006, when the so-called anti-hoon legislation was enacted, and February 2007, Victoria police seized 925 cars and 109 motorcycles -- an average of nearly five vehicles per day.

Source: Nowhere left for hoons (The Border Mail (Australia), 4/9/2007)